Fourth-graders get a taste of Christmases past

Fourth-graders at Eugene Field Elementary School in Maryville took a trip back through time Friday during "Pioneer Christmas," a longstanding tradition designed to give youngsters a taste of what the holidays were like before LED lights, artificial trees and stockings stuffed with video games.

Kids in all five fourth-grade classes spent most of the day trying their hand at traditional Christmas crafts that would have been familiar to American schoolchildren living in almost any decade between 1860 and 1960.

The suite of large classrooms was filled with the sound of hammers tapping out star shapes into tin can lids as well as the smell of freshly popped popcorn, which the children strung, along with cranberries, into long, decorative strings of the sort once commonly used as tree decorations.

Groups of youngsters sat around large tables cutting and folding green construction paper into wreath shapes, while others used a mixture of flour and water to add a touch of winter "frost" to a large pile of pinecones.

The day ended with the kids sitting in front of a video screen watching an old episode of "Little House on the Prairie," a television series that recounts the lives of a family of homesteaders in the late 1800s.

Teacher Pat New said that Eugene Field has celebrated Pioneer Christmas for more than 15 years, and that the idea is to create a window into the nation's frontier past, when celebrating Christmas was largely a homemade affair.

"I think it lets them look back at a time that was simpler and not so commercial," New said. "And it may encourage them to do some of these kinds of things at home with their families."

For New, the days of popcorn strings and other simple decorations made from common household materials are more than a history lesson. As a girl, she attended a one-room school in Iowa and can easily recall a time when Christmas wasn't bought and paid for at the local big-box store or via the 'Net at Amazon.com

"I think it's important for young people to realize that there are simple ways to do things with family and friends that don't cost a lot of money and that are just fun," New said.

Not that she dislikes progress.

"I love my technology," New said. "I couldn't live without my smart board and my computer."

But New readily admits that progress can come at a price, and fondly recalls learning her multiplication tables as a little girl from the older eighth-graders who sat at the back of her school's single classroom.

The purpose of Pioneer Christmas, she said, is to give children a meaningful glance back into that very different world, and to recognize that some things are worth saving, even if − especially if − they operate without the benefit of a computer chip.

"As wise as these children are technologically, they can't really imagine how Christmas used to be, or that you can actually make Christmas decorations," New said. "After all, you can just go to Walmart and get those."